The Intelligentsia and Skills

Should the acquisition of a skill be a prerequisite for admission to the intelligentsia?

I've already decided that only atheists may be admitted to the modern intelligentsia. But should mastery of a skill be another criterion? If somebody's extremely smart, does that necessarily imply that they will master a skill? Which skills are suitable? Is it possible that somebody's really smart but really lazy and they never bother learning how to do anything?

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Agreed, the 88 was soda head (a largely right wing site), and the 160 was another right winger claiming Chris Mathews said it. I assume they both have about the same credibility, which is to say, none.

Gingrich-care, Romney-care, Heritage Foundation-care, Bob Dole says you should use Bob Dole's Health Care plan! Because Hillery-care was too scary for them at the time, and now, even their alternative is too 'liberal'. But they have proven to be completely disingenuous over and over again, filibustering even their own ideas and whatnot.

What I would like to see is health care that respects the decisions of doctors.

The problem with mandating health insurance coverage is that insurance companies dictate health care, by taking it upon themselves to decide what's medically necessary, and by only covering certain things.

The same thing would be true with a single payer system - the government ends up running health care.

And, people without insurance often are charged 2-3 times as much as the provider receives from an insurance company.

So insurance co's negotiate cheap rates with the provider - then the provider tries to recoup their loss - on the backs of people without health insurance!! Who often are the people who can least afford it.

Thus, health insurance companies are in effect, charging people if they don't buy health insurance! It's a grab for power over medical care.

And when the government legally requires everyone to have health insurance, this puts the insurance co's even more in control of our medical care.

I wrote a blog post about what Obamacare did to me. I found out after I signed up that almost all of my medical expenses aren't covered by the insurance. This is insurance I'm legally required to buy! I fell through the cracks.

Most of those huge health care expenses come from problems that people caused with their lifestyle - smoking, weight-gain causing diet, etc. We need to address preventive medicine in a big way. That requires huge efforts at changing people's mindsets and how our society works. For example, making it easier and safer to get around on a bicycle would help a lot.

And many more low-cost or free clinics providing basic healthcare for people who can't afford it. Or perhaps, expanding Medicare a lot.

I know many people too poor to get the discounts, and not qualified for their state's medicaid program, if I had not moved here in the last decade, I would have been too. But you are wrong about one thing, if you fell through the cracks, IE you are too poor to get a credit and not qualified for state medicare (your state did not expand), then you are NOT required to buy anything (you just don't get health insurance, that's what 'falling through the cracks' means in this case).

The answer is reasonably simple, do the same thing every industrialized country has done, the equivalent of medicare for all, as you said. The insurance companies should never have been involved (but they paid for this law), no one should profit off of the lives of others.

That's not what I meant by falling through the cracks. I explained in my blog post. I fell through the cracks because of having medical problems that aren't cut and dried. So what doctors have prescribed for me and seems to be helping me, is not covered by this legally required insurance.